I came across the Traidcraft Supermarket Shoppers’ Survey on their website the other week and I must admit, it has been troubling me ever since. Having started to answer questions on my shopping habits, one of the many distractions in my life stopped me from completing and submitting the survey, so my contribution will count for nothing in the final statistics when Traidcraft publish them.
And in some ways, I’m mightily relieved about that. Because the honest answers I had to give did not match the answers that I wanted to give. Availability of fair trade products is NOT a major factor in selecting the shop I choose to buy from. I do NOT do a sweep of every shop I enter to see what fair trade products are in stock. I do NOT feel I have some influence over the products that a store stocks, because I do NOT take the time to write a letter or speak to the manager and make my views known. I do NOT know where to buy locally produced food. I am scared of what might turn up in an organic fruit and veg box delivered to my door. I do NOT expect to find all the fair trade products I want in the big supermarkets and I do NOT do anything about that.
So I went to the local Co-op today. And I scoured the shelves for fair trade rice and pasta, raisins and walnuts, biscuits and apples. And I spoke to the manager about the availability of fair trade products.
I managed to come away with fair trade bananas, chocolate, muesli , Demerara sugar and a promise from the manager to look into fair trade pineapples. But to be honest, my little expedition into new shopping territory didn’t fill me with enthusiasm, determination or the remotest desire to do it again.
I do want to answer those questions differently. So even though my responses to the survey count for nothing in the final statistics, they may lead to a change in my shopping habits. But I would like that change to be easy, straightforward and clear cut. Unfortunately, I suspect that like most things in life, nothing could be further from the truth
Filed under: Uncategorized on April 29th, 2007 | No Comments »
I’ve just had the most fantastic experience. Ten minutes on my own in the local swimming pool. Completely on my own, swimming along with the sun streaming through the window. Bliss. Marred only by the anticipated arrival of the rowdy class of kids I’d passed on the steps on the way in.
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| Gadget man’s suggestion for the pond! |
It reminded me of how much I love water. Swimming in it, relaxing in it, watching it pounding on the shore, hearing it flowing over a stony river bed, even drinking it.
Maybe that’s why I’ve been so keen to have a pond in my back garden. Imagine my delight then when I found out that there are good sound environmental reasons for digging a pond. Something to do with oxygen production.. sorry, that’s where I stopped listening. My husband was over the moon, as you can probably guess! Anyway, it’s done. We filled it with water at the weekend. I’m pleased to report the water shows no signs of draining away and no-one has fallen in yet, although the kids were all keen to be the first. Now we’re waiting a week for it to settle or whatever before relocating plants and creatures from our vicar’s unwanted pond into ours. We can hardly contain our excitement.
Seriously. It’s great to see the kids get excited about something other than the TV. Our four year old animal lover is now passed the stage where she eats them and is learning how not to squeeze God’s creatures to death. She can’t wait to see frogs and newts - even a pond skater will be exciting at first, I suspect.
So why is the first question on everyone’s lips whether we are going to have a fountain or not? Isn’t a wildlife pond going to be enthralling enough as it is? Actually, we are toying with getting a solar powered water feature, but there seem so many things that could go wrong with one, that the initial outlay feels quite a risk to take for pond novices like ourselves
Maybe if and when the novelty wears off, it may become a more attractive proposition. I’ll let you know when we succumb.
Filed under: solar powered, sustainability on April 24th, 2007 | No Comments »
It was my sister’s birthday last week and the hunt for the perfect present was underway. Nothing too expensive and yet something special. Nothing too difficult to get hold of and yet something meaningful. Nothing extravagantly pointless and yet something memorable.
I’ve never had the confidence to give my granny a goat, my kid a kid or teachers at school some pencils. Perhaps it’s because I love receiving presents on my birthday. I love the anticipation, the surprises and being treated as special person for the day. I haven’t got the courage to deprive my family and friends of that either.
I’ve also felt slightly embarrassed through the years of giving absolutely everyone fairly traded gifts, which they came to expect because “that’s what Helen and Andy are in to“. Still, gone are the days where you had to buy ten Kisii candlesticks to get two that vaguely matched. The quality and variety of what’s available out there has improved beyond recognition.
So sometimes I do better than others. I scored a hit with my sister anyway. Sent her a Chocolate Lover’s hamper - all fair trade of course. Chocolate is her first love and I made some quip about this being a conversion experience for her. I’m still undergoing mine in this area - I wish her well.
She seemed really pleased. So was I. It met all my above criteria and got a tick in the ethical consumer box too. Smiles all round.
Filed under: gifts, fair trade on April 24th, 2007 | No Comments »
People Tree sell a T shirt with USELESS on the design. Strangely, my husband is keen to get himself one. Not that he suffers from crushingly low self-esteem. On the contrary, he definitely has enough self-confidence to carry it off. Me and the kids haven’t knocked it all out of him yet. No - he’s amused by the double entendre and wholeheartedly supportive of the message.
Use less. Use less ketchup. Use less toothpaste. Use less diesel. Use less energy. Use less paper…….
Definitely use less paper. That’s what our world needs to hear. I took my recycling buddy to the recycling depot on Monday with a van full of paper and cardboard. Piles of packaging. Mountains of junk mail. Magazines and newspapers that looked as if they had hardly been read. Recycling is great, but how much energy does it take to turn our discarded offering into something useful again?
Use less. We now buy the Guardian Weekly as my husband was so distraught at having newspapers around the house that he had the desire, but never the time and lack of interruption to read. We limit the reams of paper that our budding artists devour. White A4 sheets with a tiny speck of a pencil mark in the middle are discarded in the pursuit of artistic perfection. It drives me to distraction. It can be bought so cheaply by the ream in the supermarkets - but at what cost to the world’s dwindling forests? At least buying the more expensive recycled alternative serves as a reminder of the two-sided cost.
Maybe our Andy Warhol of the future will slate us for stemming his creative talent. On the other hand, maybe he will enjoy still having a tree of two to draw.
Filed under: fashion, Reduce on April 23rd, 2007 | No Comments »
Couldn’t resist the title and it’s the least I deserve, given the inconvenience my gadget man’s latest eco-gadget has caused me.My bedroom has not experienced such noise and action in quite a while, I can tell you. Any ideas yet?
Sorry to disappoint, it’s just a Freeplay Summit wind-up radio. I shouldn’t say ‘just’ because there are very few things in life that my hubby holds possessively close to his heart but his radio is one of them. For as long as I have known him (and probably for long before that) he has not been able to sleep without being ‘ear-plugged in’. All night long, too - just in case one of the kids wakes him up and he can catch a few minutes of an obscure World Service emission before dozing off again. I’m convinced that the tinny white noise that reaches my ears reduces my quality of sleep and that that is why I find it so hard to get up in the morning!
Anyway, I had been going on at him for quite some time about the amount of batteries he was getting through. That has now stopped. Now I go on about the vigorous winding that shakes the whole bed and high-pitched whirring that accompanies it, just as I am settling down for some well-earned(!) rest. The first night on holiday in the caravan was THE low point for the radio’s assimilation into our family in my eyes - when at eleven at night, we had finally got the little ones settled…. and then the winding started, closely followed by the screaming and me spending the night with my five year old in a narrow cabin bed.
Despite all that, my man is very proud of his new possession. The quality of reception is good; the recent sunshine has powered the solar panel, reducing the need for winding; and when required, winding for a minute really does the trick. Great for if he ever decides to travel to the far corners of the earth. Equally great for keeping the wife quiet about batteries.
Filed under: Uncategorized on April 17th, 2007 | No Comments »
Having been away with my brood for five days, my greatest preoccupation since my return has been moving mountains. Mountains of washing. Colour-co-ordinated damp dirty smelly clothes into the washing machine. Then cottons into the tumble drier, synthetic fibres onto the line, underwear onto the airer in the bathroom. After that, the ironing pile reaches mountainous proportions, the sock sorting demands endurance and perseverance beyond belief, and everything has to find its way into the correct drawers and cupboards!
Feels like a mountain of Everest dimensions to me. Sound familiar? Anyway, an ideal opportunity to try a new laundry product. Armed with gallons of Ecover laundry liquid, I have taken on the challenge. I normally use powder, I have to say, and much of the first bottle was spilt on the garage floor by kids rummaging around for matching roller skates. Must learn to screw the top on more securely. Liquid disappears out of the drawer as fast as I pour it and does not sit reassuringly as I shut the drawer like powder does. It requires some faith to believe it could work: sorry, I’m a laundry dinosaur.
Then the worries start. Can a liquid that is less harmful to aquatic life really get my clothes clean? Can a detergent without optical brighteners preserve the look of my clothes? Is less foam really more effective?
Well, as my laundry mountain has begun to shift, I have to say that I have not noticed any difference. Nobody has complained. All smells good. All looks fine to me. And more fish have been saved.
Job done.
Filed under: Uncategorized on April 13th, 2007 | No Comments »
Just been away with the family to Spring Harvest, an annual Christian conference - at Butlins Skegness, no less! And ‘stop the traffik’ is not a misspelling of any fears, hopes or prayers for the journey: it is the slogan for the coalition that was flagged up throughout the time there.
Tying in with the launch of “Wilberforce” and the celebrations surrounding the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, ‘Stop the Traffik!’ aims to put an end to the continuing slave trade, the human trafficking that takes place all over the world.
Clips were shown to heighten awareness of the plight of millions, particularly women and children, bought and sold to be used and abused. The UNICEF video narrated by Robbie Williams is well worth watching. Harrowing in the extreme.
We were encouraged to give - a one-off generous offering to four particular projects giving shelter and refuge to those affected by this evil. Great in itself.
But it cannot end there. That is not enough.
It was interesting that it took until the last day to make the link between poverty and this horrific trade. Fair trade can affect slave trade. It is the most vulnerable, the least educated, the poorest of the poor who are most at risk. Fair trade can lift people out of abject poverty and prepare them to fight this war.
Shouting the slogans and buying the merchandise are only part of the story. Making poverty history is still very much a part of the present. Reflect on this: the products we buy and sell make a difference to those who are bought and sold.
Filed under: Uncategorized on April 12th, 2007 | No Comments »
Maybe no sweat, but definitely a few plasters to cover the blisters created as I try to wear in my new fairly traded sneakers!
I needed a pair and was about to visit the cheapest sports shop in the area, when I was struck by an attack of conscience. I sat down at the computer instead and ‘surfed the net’ (that doesn’t sound as cool as it used to, does it?!?) and there it was - a company with squeaky clean credentials, specialising in sneakers that come with a labour content disclosure form - full info about wages and benefits - that is as, if not more, cool than the shoes themselves! The right colour too - well, it was black and white I was looking for, not exactly a demanding choice.
Of course, far more expensive for me than the alternative, but much less expensive to the lives of the producers. I’m not used to making such choices when it comes to fashion, I have to admit. I wore my new shoes with pride, smiling to cover the painful grimace of ‘first time sores‘!
NO SWEAT - that’s the name on the tongue of the sneakers and on mine. Not planning to break into a sweat any time soon. Too much Easter egg overload!
Filed under: Uncategorized on April 11th, 2007 | No Comments »
A day after my comments on fish last week, the National Geographic Magazine landed on my doormat. Its leading article was on fish.
Actually, less about marine pollution and more about over-fishing, but the link can still be made. With fish very much in my thinking, the stark images really got to me. Bycatch being thrown overboard - perfectly good fish protein going to waste - contrasted with the fish carcasses sold in West African marketplaces as the only source of fish protein available, once the good flesh has been stripped and exported to the developed world. Totally shocking.
Enough to make me visit the website of the Marine Stewardship Council to investigate which fish I can legitimately buy and consume with a clear conscience. I wonder how long it will take for my family to get fed up with Wild Alaskan salmon and to wonder why we no longer frequent the local fish and chip shop.
It won’t work out as black and white as that, I guess. Life never does.
It’s true. Ignorance is bliss. Once you have seen the photos or read the articles, consuming the product will never be the same again. Bliss for the consumer; obviously not for the producer. Dispelling ignorance is part of the mission of the ethical consumer, I guess. Kiss bliss goodbye!
Filed under: Uncategorized on April 3rd, 2007 | No Comments »
A couple of days ago, I decided to make a momentous purchase. All my trousers have been a size too small since my excesses at Christmas, but I thought the best incentive to lose weight was to resist buying any new ones. It didn’t work. So, having seen M and S adverts for fair trade organic cotton jeans, I thought I could ease my physical discomfort and simultaneously support the cause.
The staff on the shop floor looked at me as if I was mad and half-heartedly joined me in my search. We found none. Although strangely, when I rang up just now, I was assured there were some on display, even though the person on the phone could not tell me where exactly they were. And the fair trade organic cotton T shirts, promoted so heavily during Fairtrade fortnight, have also dramatically disappeared.
I can’t help wondering if my husband’s scepticism of large retailers jumping on a fair trade bandwagon is founded in some truth. Smaller companies devoted to ethical issues certainly seem to have purer motives.
But, faint-hearted and weak-willed shopper that I am, I sit here wearing comfortable new cargo pants that seduced me from the sale rack. So it worked. The advertising got me in and I made a purchase anyway.
Maybe next time.
Filed under: Uncategorized on April 1st, 2007 | No Comments »
